ASUS expects to launch its XG Station next month to OEM and channel partners -- no retail availability expected

Notebook users rejoice: ASUS is set to produce its XG Station external graphics card for notebooks. ASUS previously pulled the wraps off the XG Station at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year. The XG Station will not have retail availability, however, ASUS plans to ship the XG Station to OEMs and channel partners.

ASUS will not sell the XG Station as a barebones external graphics card enclosure. Instead, ASUS will bundle the XG Station with ASUS PCIe graphics cards. Pricing on XG Stations will vary depending on the bundled graphics card.

ASUS’ XG Station takes advantage of a notebook’s ExpressCard slot to provide a PCIe x16 slot for additional graphical processing capabilities. ASUS demonstrated the XG Station with an EN7900GS graphics card at CES 2007.

In addition to the enhanced video capabilities, the XG Station features audio output capabilities. There is a single headphone output jack on the XG Station – sorry folks, there is no 5.1 output support. However, the XG Station supports Dolby Headphone technology for simulated six-channel surround sound audio.

Audio and video capabilities aside, ASUS equips the XG Station with a large LED display to monitor vital system information. The LED display shows the following information:

System master volume

GPU clock speed

Current GPU temperature

Dolby® Headphone feature status

Current actual Frames Per Second (FPS) information

GPU fan speed Indicator

A control knob allows users easy overclocking controls too. Overclocking functionality of the control knob is limited to GPU core clock though.

Expect the ASUS to release the XG Station to eligible customers next month. Pricing information on XG Station-based graphics cards is unknown now. Expect XG Station bundles to cost slightly more than an ASUS graphics card itself.

Comments

Threshold

Username

Password

remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

Though admittedly presumptuous to say that the XG station is history, I am looking back at past cases of these types of gadgets; which leaves me to believe that the ATI solution if released would victor in the market.

there is very little info there about the capabilities of the Lasso. it appears to use two usb connections. how they expect to carry the bandwidth of two R600's over two usb's is beyond me. and as for the XG, the article states something about the X16 bus...but isn't expresscard just 1x?

furthermore, all that article does is present questions. it says absolutely nothing about how it will interface and how it will be powered. I'm not sure how you could possibly make any sort of determination based on that writeup and that picture of some extremely early prototype looking piece of equipment.

ok cool, i'll buy that. sorry for my nearsightedness. So would it be safe to assume they are powering it from a psu while they develop a power-brick type solution? As far as the interface goes, why all the hubub about using such a high bandwidth connection (effectively 8x it looks like) if the expresscard bus will only take 1x? or do you think there will be a variant that interfaces with a 16x PCI-E (external) port on a laptop, if such a thing were to come into existance? i'm a bit confused, but then again i have a pretty limited knowledge of ePCI-E.

If this type of peripheral takes off it could prompt the manufaturers to upgrade the expresscard specifications sooner. I think 8x or 16x expresscard slot (compatible with 1x components) specification in a year or two isn't far fetched...

If you look at both the products(Asus/Ati)from a marketing point of view they are already obsolete.

This luxury will drive up laptop prices drastically (additional $600 or more)& nobody is willing to put up such cash for this.They(laptop buyers) rather invest that additional cash in memory upgrade/Cpu ugrade/or additional HDD or wireless upgrade or preface portal player etc etc.even better "a 32GB SSD"

Nvidia has plenty of GPUs for laptops that give more than enough graphics for laptop use(whatever you needs be).

ASUS has range of HIGH END laptops specially for those whohave the cash to throw away,like Asus-LAMBORGHINI range of laptops($3000plus).USE ONE- then you will know what I am talking about.

-Regular BUYERS spend their money WISELY & look out for LOWER PRICES.-They want value for their money.-Corporate/business sector buyers are even more stingy when it comes to COST.-Any serious/reliable/honest computer dealer outlet will recommend exactly what I said-

"Why throw away your cash for something like this,instead you can buy this & this & that etc & be more satisfied."